There is one company between you and gas, water and electricity. By all measures those seem a lot more important. How is this different?

Basically all of those companies are regulated, and none of them can cut you off, because you did something stupid. You can even murder someone, and they can't cut you off.

Right. So when a company has a natural monopoly on a resource or a service, it makes sense to regulate them strictly.

Which company are we talking about again?

I thought that before the pandemic too. Apparently the mayor of LA has the ability to cut off power and water though.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/los-angeles-cuts-utilit...

They can easily cut you off if you dont pay.

Well yeah, sometimes. In some countries (i believe france), they can only limit power to lightning (a couple of hundred watts limit, so not totally off) if you don't pay, and if your only cooking appliance is using electricity (electric stove), they can't even limit that.

... Technically for us at least the _gas_ company is different. In fact there are a number of companies providing gas.